Martina Navratilova denounces Donald Trump as a "low IQ guy" after former US President's criticism of John Kelly, takes a dig at his "orange makeup"

Martina Navratilova recently took a swipe at former US President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Navratilova's swipe came in the wake of Trump passing a derogatory remark on John Kelly's intellect. Kelly was Trump's longest-serving chief-of-staff, but has recently made worrying claims about the former President.

74-year-old Kelly, a former US Marine Corps general, served as Donald Trump's White House chief-of-staff from 2017 to 2019. However, despite his close association with the former President in the past, Kelly has lately urged American citizens to vote responsibly in the 2024 presidential election, which is currently seeing candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris launching frequent verbal attacks at each other.

In an interview with The New York Times, Kelly claimed that certain aspects of Trump's personality reflect 'fascist' qualities.

"Well, looking at the definition of fascism: It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy. So certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America," Kelly told The New York Times.

Since these comments went public, Donald Trump has turned on his former chief-of-staff. At a recent rally, the former President questioned the 74-year-old's intellect.

"I just saw General Kellogg wherever he may be backstage… He is a real general not like Milley. Not like Kelly, low, he is a low IQ guy," Trump said at the rally.

A clip of Trump's criticism of Kelly was later shared on X (formerly Twitter) by a user, and former World No. 1 and 18-time singles Major winner Martina Navratilova took notice of it. Navratilova, a fierce critic of Trump and the Republicans, sarcastically poked fun at the former President's own intellect and his "orange makeup".

"I know who is a low IQ guy and he wears a lot of orange makeup," Navratilova wrote.

Earlier this month, Navratilova was appalled after a high-profile Republican gathering at Madison Square Garden, where Trump himself featured, stirred controversy due to inflammatory words used by supporters of the former President's 2024 campaign.

"Abominable" - Martina Navratilova's furious reaction to Donald Trump's Madison Square Garden rally

Martina Navratilova (Source: Getty)

The recent Republican rally at Madison Square Garden made headlines for all the wrong reasons as several controversial claims were made by the speakers, which included Donald Trump himself. Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe particularly came under scrutiny for referring to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage".

While Hinchcliffe later defended himself by saying that he is a comedian who was only performing an act, Martina Navratilova delivered a damning reaction to the controversial event.

"After the abominable Trump rally which was a carbon copy of the Nazi rally there in 1939 I think?r - I truly cannot even think of being friends with anyone who would vote for the wannabe fascist named Donald Trump. Don’t even bother trying to make excuses for him," Navratilova wrote.

Navratilova is one of several prominent names from the world of tennis who has openly endorsed Kamala Harris as the next US President.